History Film / FinalDestination3

* ConvenientPhotograph: The photographs that Wendy took of the survivors before getting on (and off) the rollercoaster have eerie blocks on them to give clues to how they're going to die. She uses them as her main ammunition to figure out how to try and save them again.

** When they're getting on the rollercoaster, Jason tells Wendy "I'll meet you at the end". He means the end of the ride. It ends up being [[spoiler: [[TogetherInDeath at the end of the movie.]]]]

* SoundOnlyDeath: [[spoiler:The movie closes with unds of the collision are there for everyone to guess. The chance is high for an unpleasant end.]]

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: While Ian is listing off people he thinks death seems to favor he lists Charlie Manson, Osama Bin Laden, pimps, and vice presidents.

** [[spoiler:{{Averted|Trope}} in the novelization. Wendy and Kevin discover that they do have feelings for each other, and even come to kiss. But they decide that they will talk about their relationship after they finish with the Death's plans.]]

%% ZeroContextExample * {{Goth}}: Ian and Erin

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Originally [[spoiler: Clear from ''1'' and ''2'' was meant to return in this film - that was the original plan, but during the filming of ''2'', they discovered filming schedule complications with Ali Larter and, thus, Clear had to die in 2 - because Ali Larter was unavailable - rather than survive and play a large roll in 3, helping Wendy like she did Kimberly.]]

* DiedInIgnorance: Played straight by Carrie and intentionally inverted by Wendy. Kevin tells Wendy that he was going to propose to Carrie before her death in the rollercoaster accident. Wendy, on the other hand, knows that Carrie was planning to break up with Kevin, as she told her just before the accident. She keeps this from him.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: While Ian is listing off people he thinks death seems to favor he lists Charlie Manson, Osama Bin Laden, pimps, and vice presidents.

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Erin]] gets nails shot through her face during a nail gun accident. Several of them go through her eyes.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A plot point; photographs taken of the various characters show the way that they'll end up dying. [[spoiler:The opening credits also prelude the gory and unseemly final deaths of the characters using the carnival's various signs, texts, and art pieces.]]

* {{Goth}}: Ian and Erin

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Ian after Erin's death, to the point that he's convinced Wendy caused it, when all she did was try to warn them.]]

* AssholeVictim: Many of the characters - [[spoiler: Lewis, Frankie and Ian]].

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: The ending doesn't reveal whether Wendy, Kevin, and Julie manage to escape the train accident alive. According to the alternate ending and WordOfGod(though preceded by the phrase "in my mind"), [[DownerEnding they don't]].]]

* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: The premise, but [[spoiler: Wendy, Julie, and Kevin manage to avoid not only their deaths on the roller coast but also several near misses in the climax. They're killed at the end in a subway accident.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The Christensen family's bracelet. [[spoiler: The unidentified figure on the Death's List after Ian/Erin also wore it, and Wendy is certain that she ''didn't'' wear it at the fair. Guess who did?]]

* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Julie snuck her way onto the rollercoaster despite being underage, along with her friend Perry. Both of them are around 15-16, making them younger than the protagonists. Perry is later killed by a flag, while Julie's ultimate fate is more ambiguous with the BolivianArmyEnding.]]
* DenserAndWackier: An extremely dark example. The deaths in this are far more elaborate and over-the-top than in the previous two. Especially notable is [[spoiler: Julie getting dragged around by a horse at the 4th July celebration]].
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: We knew [[spoiler: Perry]] was next all of three seconds before she gets skewered.

* EurekaMoment: Wendy, when she realizes that [[spoiler: Julie is the next on Death's List after Ian/Erin because the figure after them wore their family's heirloom bracelet, something that Julie has been nagging about.]]
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Averted with the drive-through collision, probably because an explosion would've obscured the [[spoiler: fan-blade-to-the-head]] manner of the resulting death.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Wendy explains that [[spoiler: Kevin's photo is overexposed and bright. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Cue Kevin looking behind him at a banner for Fireworks Display and an exasperated expression on his face as he realises his death is probably going to involve fireworks.]]]]

* FinalGirl: Wendy. [[spoiler:Subverted first as she appears to only survive about 15 seconds longer than the other two friends killed in the subway crash; then DoubleSubverted as that was in fact a premonition, and eventually zigzagged although highly implied to be subverted after all in the end.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: A plot point; photographs taken of the various characters show the way that they'll end up dying. [[spoiler: The opening credits also prelude the gory and unseemly final deaths of the characters using the carnival's various signs, texts, and art pieces.]]
** [[spoiler: Erin using the metal detector up the nails and examining them to her face, in addition to the gun pointed at her in the photo, foreshadows her death by the nail gun.]]

** [[spoiler: It looks like Wendy, Kevin, and Julie manage to cheat Death; Kevin and Julie have been saved by Wendy, while Wendy herself avoids being killed by Ian, who's apparently her cause of death. It even goes to skip three months afterward to show that they're still alive. However, it turns out that Wendy's cause of death isn't Ian, but trains (see RedHerring below), and because Kevin and Julie are with her, they get killed too (though They may already been doomed from the start, anyway, if one believes in the theory that Death is the one who gave Wendy the premonitions).]]
** The alternate version of the tanning bed deaths [[spoiler: has Ashlyn freeing herself from the bed, only to electrocute herself and Ashley when she tries to free her friend]].
* HufflepuffHouse: Julie has two friends, Amber and Perry. [[spoiler: Perry turns out to be the one who was on the rollercoaster with her, locking her as the next victim. Amber ends up a RedHerring]].

** [[spoiler: After believing that he averted his own death, Lewis shouts "Fuck Death! I just win! That's all I know how to do Kevin! Baby, I just win!" and then the weights come down and crush his head.]]
** [[spoiler: Ian believes he was skipped over in the death cycle, which seems to be proven when fireworks go off, are sent flying at him and miss him completely. He yells out to Wendy and Kevin (the former whom he blames for the death of his girlfriend) that he's off death's list and isn't dying while flipping them off... right before he gets crushed by a cherry picker which lands on him in such a way that flips ''him'' off. For extra points, the sign also has his surname [=McKinley=] on it which Ian has pointly hated.]]

** Wendy leaves Ashley and Ashlyn a message that ends with "sorry I was too late". [[spoiler: She means too late to join them at the tanning salon. It ends up meaning too late to save them]].

** At the funeral, Frankie thinks that [[spoiler: Ashley and Ashlyn]] are dead because of him. When Julie asks why, he tells her that if men like him didn't see women as anything but sex-toys, they wouldn't try so hard to look good by going on diets, exercising, and (in [[spoiler: Ashley and Ashlyn's]] case, which is what led to their deaths), tanning. Too bad he ruins the moment when he tries to kiss Julie seconds later.
** Ian makes some pretty valid points about how vague the "signs of death" are, pointing out that virtually anything could be interpreted as a sign if you're looking hard enough. Also, his suggestion that the last in line should make the utilitarian sacrifice to break the chain is pragmatically logical, and even followed through with in a deleted ending to the fourth movie [[spoiler: (although it doesn't work).]] And he's also not wrong in that people only say the things that Wendy is saying when it's an accident.

* MeaningfulName: Ashley and Ashlyn both names which can be shortened to [[spoiler: "Ash", end up burned to death in a tanning salon called Phoneix Tanning.]]

* MythologyGag: In the ending, [[spoiler:Wendy noticed that she's on [[ArcNumber Train 180]]. Her fate is sealed right after.]]

** [[spoiler:{{Averted}} in the novelization. Wendy and Kevin discover that they do have feelings for each other, and even come to kiss. But they decide that they will talk about their relationship after they finish with the Death's plans.]]

* PrecisionFStrike: Kevin has one for Ben Franklin's reenactor, who wished for some lighting. [[spoiler: Though to be fair, he did just learn he was going to die by something exploding in his face.]]
--> '''Kevin''': Fuck you Ben Franklin.

* RedHerring: Wendy thinks that the clue for her cause of death is the shirt she wore during the night at the fair, which has [="McKinley"=] written on it, which she interprets as [[spoiler: Ian]] being her cause of death. [[spoiler: It's not. The actual clue is Jason's blurred face. It represents the blurred faces of passengers of a train, which will be her true cause of death.]]

** The conversation Wendy has with Julie on the first time viewing could be seen as Julie feeling bad for Wendy who lost her boyfriend and best friend and has survivor guilt over not doing enough to save the people on the ride. But upon a rewatch, [[spoiler: you realise that Julie's silence could also be her own survivor's guilt as she never told Wendy that she was also on the ride and was one of the people Wendy inadvertently saved that night.]]
** Just before [[spoiler: Frankie Cheeks' brutal death by the truck engine fan]]. You can see a familiar style of dress in the guy in front of Kevin's car. It's also GeniusBonus as [[spoiler: Frankie originally cut in front of Wendy and Kevin at the rollercoaster and thus died before them in the premonition. Here Wendy and Kevin are trapped due to another truck (which is the same company, HICE Pale Ale who responsible for the Route 23 pileup in the 2nd movie) and the car behind them blocking their escape. While Wendy and Kevin end up saving themselves by breaking the windshield. Frankie dies because he prioritised his spot, refused to move and didn't listen to Kevin.]]
** On the subject of [[spoiler: Lewis's death]]. His picture involves a sultan holding scimitars (the symbol of the team he plays for) and what look like a weight coming down on his head from a Test Your Strength game. Wendy and Kevin do actually point out some of these details but they fail to consider the full extent of the clues. [[spoiler: What's notable here is that Lewis is the one responsible for the head coming off the display at the start of the film, which foreshadowed his bullheadedness and what would eventually lead to his death by his own hands in the gym.]]
** After realising that [[spoiler: Julie]] was one of the riders, rewatching the scenes with the rollercoaster is difficult to spot the two since they are wearing hoodies (blue and pink respectively), but at the centennial, you can actually see both [[spoiler: Julie and Perry]] wearing those hoodies at the food stand. It's a subtle touch but they're there nonetheless.

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Ian after Erin’s death, to the point that he’s convinced Wendy caused it, when all she did was try to warn them.]]

* SoundOnlyDeath: [[spoiler: The movie closes with unds of the collision are there for everyone to guess. The chance is high for an unpleasant end.]]

** Love Rollercoaster by the Ohio Players. This is what Ashley and Ashlyn are listening to at Phoneix Tanning. It alludes to the rollercoaster accident they were supposed to die on but others have also pointed out the ominous urban legend of the woman screaming was her actually being murdered or supposedly dying in a rollercoaster accident. At that point, both their fates are obvious but the music really helps emphasise it.
** Turn Around and Look at Me by The Vogues. This song is a constant motif in Final Destination 3, which always plays just before Death is about the strike.

*** It returns when Wendy is rushing to the Centennial in her car, where she is trying to prevent [[spoiler: her sister's Julie, the other person with her (Perry) and Kevin's deaths but also alludes to the fact Ian is in the car behind her, following her.]]
*** And finally, with the singer on Train 081. The singer, along with a gust of wind a constant omen of Death. Is what clues Wendy to [[spoiler: the true meaning of her photograph with Jason's blurry face, much how a train blurs focus when it's moving, her photo really represents she is meant to die on the train]].
** Killing Time by Hed PE (Planet Earth) is what's playing during [[spoiler: Lewis's workout, which also hints towards his death.]]

** [[spoiler: Lewis]] narrowly avoid having his head cut off by ornamental scimitars while on a weight machine. Exuberant, he does another rep on the machine, not realizing that the scimitars have frayed the cables, resulting in them snapping and crushing his head between the weights. [[NoOSHACompliance Who would design a machine like that anyway?]]

* TrappedInATanningBed: [[spoiler: Ashley and Ashlyn]] are both killed after a series of unlikely "coincidences" lead to both of their tanning beds being jammed shut and burning them to death.
* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:Ian. Even after Wendy had warned him about Death’s plan, and even saved his life, he blames her for Erin’s death.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The employee at the tanning booth has to take a phone call outside. [[spoiler: As he's not at the counter, he doesn't know anything about the malfunction that leads to Ashley and Ashlyn's deaths; and since he accidentally locks himself out of the building, he can't get back in when he hears them screaming]].
* WhamShot:

** It's paired with a "EurekaMoment but when Wendy looks at the picture of the mysterious riders who are next on Death's list [[spoiler: and sees a [[MementoMacGuffin familiar bracelet]] on the wrist of the unknown people which belong to her sister Julie.]]
* WoodChipperOfDoom: The alternate ending from the DVD reveals that the ''Film/FinalDestination2'' survivors, [[spoiler: Kimberly Corman and Thomas Burke]], were both killed from a woodchipper accident in a newspaper. The canonicity of their death is questionable (even the director says that you could take it as canon), but since the survivors in the series died despite escaping Death's plans, it is possible that they might not live long.

* AssholeVictim: Many of the characters - [[spoiler: Lewis, Frankie, Ian, and Carrie]].

** The Tri-Centtinel celebrations are essentially a recap of all the deaths that have occurred thus far as pointed out by others.
*** The Horse Rider represents the rollercoaster victims. The grills and fires representing the tanning salon victims

** Turn Around and Look at Me by The Vogues. The song that suddenly starts playing on the radio is what tips Wendy of the runaway truck approaching the drive-through that is hurtling right behind them. It's particularly glaring with the lyric, "There is someone walking behind you."
*** It also returns when Wendy is rushing to the Centennial in her car, where she is trying to prevent [[spoiler: her sister's Julie, the other person with her (Perry) and Kevin's deaths but also alludes to the fact Ian is in the car behind her, following her.]]

* FatalFireworks: The finale takes place at a tricentennial, featuring fireworks. Said fireworks set off a horse that manages to nearly kill one character (and upon failing to do so, kill another), and at the end of the scene, the fireworks nearly hit the three main characters, only to cause the death of the film's only human antagonist.

* InvisibleParents: Wendy and Julie's mother is briefly mentioned, but never makes it onscreen.

* RewatchBonus: In general, the film has many rewatch bonuses and easter eggs which hint towards how each of the characters will die but also to the previous films. The most notable are the pictures which foreshadow how each of the characters are supposed to die and while Kevin and Wendy struggle to interpret them. For example Lewis's.

** On the subject of [[spoiler: Lewis's death]]. His picture involves a sultan holding scimitars (the symbol of the team he plays for) and what look like a weight coming down on his head from a Test Your Strength game. Wendy and Kevin do actually point out some of these details but they fail to consider the full extent of the clues. [[spoiler: What's notable here is that Lewis is the one responsible for the head coming off the display, which foreshadowed his bullheadedness and what would eventually lead to his death by his own hands in the gym.]]

** Love Rollercoaster by the Ohio Players. Is what Ashley and Ashlyn are listening to at Phoneix Tanning. It alludes to the rollercoaster accident they were supposed to die on but others have also pointed out the ominous urban legend of the woman screaming was her actually being murdered or supposedly dying in a rollercoaster accident. At that point, the Ashs' fates are obvious but the music really helps emphasise it.

*** It also returns when Wendy is rushing to the Centennial in her car, where she is trying to prevent [[spoiler: her sister's, the other person with her (Perry), Kevin and her own death.]]
** Killing Time by Hed PE (Planet Earth) is what's playing during Lewis's workout which also hint towards his death.

** Lewis narrowly avoid having his head cut off by ornamental scimitars while on a weight machine. Exuberant, he does another rep on the machine, not realizing that the scimitars have frayed the cables, resulting in them snapping and crushing his head between the weights. [[NoOSHACompliance Who would design a machine like that anyway?]]

* TrappedInATanningBed: Ashley and Ashlyn are both killed after a series of unlikely "coincidences" lead to both of their tanning beds being jammed shut and burning them to death.

** [[spoiler: Ian believes he was skipped over in the death cycle, which seems to be proven when fireworks go off, are sent flying at him and miss him completely. He yells out to Wendy and Kevin (the former whom he blames for the death of his girlfriend) that he's off death's list and isn't dying while flipping them off... right before he gets crushed by a cherry picker which lands on him in such a way that flips ''him'' off.]]

* RewatchBonus: In general, the film has many rewatch bonuses and easter eggs which hint towards how each of the characters will die but also to the previous films. The most notable are the pictures which foreshadow how each of the characters are supposed to die and while Kevin and Wendy struggle to interpret them such as Lewis's.
** The conversation Wendy has with Julie on the first time could be seen as Julie feeling bad for Wendy who lost her boyfriend and best friend and has survivor guilt over not doing enough to save the people on the ride. But upon a rewatch, [[spoiler: you realise that Julie's silence could also be her own survivor's guilt as she never told Wendy that she was also on the ride and was one of the people Wendy inadvertently saved that night.]]
* Just before [[spoiler: Frankie Cheeks' brutal death by the truck engine fan]]. You can see a familiar cap on top of the guy in front of Kevin's car. It's also GeniusBonus as [[spoiler: Frankie originally cut in front of Wendy and Kevin at the rollercoaster and thus died before them in the premonition. Here Wendy and Kevin are trapped due to another truck, (which is the same company, HICE Pale Ale who responsible for the Route 23 pileup in the 2nd movie) and the car behind them. While Wendy and Kevin end up saving themselves by getting out of the way. Frankie dies because he prioritised his spot and refused to move.]]
** On the subject of Lewis's death. His picture involves scimitars and an exploding head from a Test Your Strength game. Some of these details are pointed out by Wendy and Kevin but they fail to consider the extent of the clues [[spoiler: What's notable here is that Lewis is the one responsible for the head coming off the display, which foreshadowed his bullheadedness and what would eventually lead to his death by his own hands in the gym accident.]]

* WhamShot: It's paired with a EurekaMoment but when Wendy looks at the picture of the mysterious riders who are next on Death's list [[spoiler: and sees a [[MementoMacGuffin familiar bracelet]] on the wrist of the unknown people which belong to her sister Julie.]]

* FanDisservice: Two girls go inside a tanning bed topless, only to be burned alive when the machines malfunction.

* SpookyPhotographs: The source of the premonitions throughout the movie.

* KillEmAll: As with the previous two films, we see every main cast member getting killed in a vision and/or in reality. [[spoiler:This time however, everyone actually ''does'' die, as Wendy's vision of the subway crash happens mere seconds before the actual crash, and she can't do anything to stop it in the short time that she has (Technically, there might be chances for at least some of them to survive without stopping the train, given the vision of the upcoming accident, however this is apparently unlikely)]].

* BreakTheCutie: Death ''really'' seemed to have it in for Wendy.
** The story begins with her witnessing the deaths of her boyfriend and best friend, and believing that she could have saved them. (Wendy had no way of knowing, at that point, that even if she had gotten Jason and Carrie off the rollercoaster, they would have just been added to Death's list and been virtually certain to die, anyway.)
** Throughout the film, Wendy's failed attempts to save the other survivors of the Devil's Flight disaster were visibly weighing her down.
** In the final scene, Wendy [[spoiler:''could'' have died when the train derailed and crashed, like Julie and Kevin did. Instead, she survived the crash, climbed out of the wreckage severely injured and in agony, and had ''just enough time'' to cry in anguish over the deaths of her sister and close friend, before another train appears, bearing down on her. Death allowed Wendy, Julie, and Kevin to live peacefully for a few months and believe that they were finally safe before taking Julie and Kevin, and then further allowed Wendy to experience a few moments of anguish, as well as false hope that she herself would live, before killing her, too.]]
** Just to pile insult upon injury, Wendy [[spoiler:has a ''premonition'' of the subway disaster, even though she is already on the train and there is nothing she can do to prevent it. So, in effect, Wendy has to experience the terrifying ordeal ''twice'' for no discernible reason.]]

->''"The ones who got off that roller coaster are still going to die,...unless we can figure out how to stop it."''

* AssholeVictim: Many of the characters - [[spoiler: Lewis, Frankie, Ian, Erin, and Carrie]].